Strasbourg, 8 December 2010 – The Council of
Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) today
published its Third Round Evaluation Report on Portugal, according
to which although criminal legislation in respect of domestic
bribery complies with Council of Europe standards, it needs to be
amended to better cover such offences in the international
context. GRECO also calls for more transparency in relation to
political financing, in particular if the system is to allow more
private based funding in the future.

However, not all the corruption offences in the international context are
covered, which is a major shortcoming. Sanctions for bribery concerning
public officials have recently been aligned with European standards, but the
sanctions for private sector bribery and trading in influence are weak and
need to be revised. GRECO notes that only limited practice is available in
applying bribery legislation and calls for training of the professionals
involved.

Concerning transparency of party funding (hyperlink
to theme II), GRECO acknowledges
that Portugal, currently, has a relatively developed system in place,
including detailed rules establishing the basis for and limits of private
financing of political parties and election campaigns.

The monitoring of political financing, which is carried out by the Entity
for Accounts and Political Financing and the Constitutional Court, appears
rather cumbersome and its results are made available to the public at a very
late stage. Allowing more private funding into the system, which is
currently under debate in Portugal, would need to be connected to
appropriate rules on transparency and monitoring.

In the report GRECO addresses 13 recommendations to Portugal. The
implementation of these will be assessed by GRECO in the second half of
2012, through its specific compliance procedure